An open letter from Victoria University Vice Chancellor Lawrence Muganga is pushing for a nationwide digital education overhaul, arguing that equipping millions of learners with devices could unlock Uganda’s demographic dividend and accelerate its path to a $500 billion economy.
Dr Lawrence Muganga has called on President Museveni to urgently implement a nationwide “One Laptop Per Child” policy, describing it as a transformative strategy to fast-track Uganda’s economic growth and deepen regional integration.
In a detailed open letter dated March 22, 2026, Muganga framed Museveni’s recent re-election, in which he secured 71 percent of the vote, as a rare opportunity to fundamentally reshape the country’s economic trajectory.
He pointed to Uganda’s youthful population, noting that more than 76 percent of citizens are under the age of 34, and argued that this demographic structure presents a strategic advantage if properly harnessed.
“This is not a challenge; it is our greatest strategic asset,” Muganga wrote, emphasising the need to equip young Ugandans with digital skills and access to technology to compete in a global economy.
The proposal is closely tied to Uganda’s Ten-Fold Growth Strategy, which aims to expand the country’s gross domestic product from about $60 billion to $500 billion by 2040.
Muganga's proposal is not entirely novel. Rwanda has already implemented a version of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) policy, positioning itself as a regional leader in digital education.
Launched in 2009 and scaled over the years, the programme equipped primary and secondary school students with laptops and tablets preloaded with educational content, digital textbooks, and offline learning resources.
The initiative has significantly improved access to ICT skills, increased student engagement, and fostered early digital literacy, with schools reporting higher participation in computer-based learning and better preparedness for higher education and the modern workforce.
Rwanda’s OLPC scheme has also contributed to narrowing the digital divide between urban and rural areas, demonstrating how technology-driven education can support national development goals.
Muganga warned that sustaining the required annual growth rate of between 14 and 18 percent would be difficult if the country continues to rely primarily on traditional sectors such as agriculture, oil, and manufacturing.
Instead, he argued that emerging technologies—including artificial intelligence, robotics, energy storage, multiomic sequencing, and public blockchains—must drive the next phase of growth.
To underscore the scale of the challenge, Muganga compared Africa’s combined GDP with the valuations of global technology companies, noting that firms such as Nvidia, Apple, Alphabet, and Microsoft individually surpass the continent’s economic output.
“These numbers are not just statistics; they are a call to action,” he wrote, stressing that technological capability is central to wealth creation.
Under the proposed policy, all 15 million school-going Ugandans would be equipped with solar-powered laptops or tablets, potentially manufactured locally to stimulate industrial growth and job creation.
Each learner would gain access to digital libraries, academic journals, and educational resources, reducing reliance on physical textbooks, libraries, and computer laboratories.
Muganga argued that the estimated $1.2 billion investment would be offset by long-term savings and productivity gains, effectively making the programme self-financing.
To support connectivity, he proposed leveraging Low Earth Orbit satellite providers such as SpaceX’s Starlink and Amazon’s Project Kuiper to deliver high-speed internet nationwide, including in remote areas, bypassing the need for extensive fibre infrastructure.
He added that digital tools, particularly artificial intelligence, could significantly boost productivity, enabling knowledge workers to complete tasks more efficiently and at higher quality, thereby accelerating economic output.
Beyond national impact, Muganga positioned the initiative as a catalyst for regional integration, suggesting that digitally empowered youth could collaborate across East Africa in real time, expanding markets and trade opportunities.
He further linked the proposal to the African Continental Free Trade Area’s Digital Trade Protocol, arguing that enhanced digital capacity could increase intra-African trade by more than 50 percent.
In closing, Muganga urged the President to seize what he described as a historic moment, saying the policy could define a legacy of technological leadership and youth empowerment.
“History is watching. The opportunity is unprecedented. The time to act is now,” he wrote.
